Monday, February 15, 2016

Manthru's tryst with Swach 'Bharat' Abhiyaan

Immensely written articles about Swach Bahrat
Abhiyan, celebrity posing with brooms, politicians cleaning heaps of garbage
and being photographed were such a common sight in the daily newspapers….just
like a thing of past it is now!

Everyday seeing a new face with white clothes and a broom and some litter around, the curious me once asked them, 'Bhaisaab and Behen ji, these Rin white clothes will get dirty?’. I was obviously ignored.I
agree that it was an honest effort that was genuinely announced and introduced by our PM but for some of them it was a
publicity stunt or rather one more opportunity to flaunt themselves on Page 3 and for some it became a source of income. Sharing a hilarious incident that happened in the neighbourhood with Gita Aunty.

Gita Aunty was sitting in her chair with
the newspaper and a cup of masala chai. After a cuppa and catching up on some
news she scooted for her morning walk.
Mathru, her gardener is compassionately cleaning the garden, it is autumn and a tiny hillocks of dry leaves, decomposed
leaves that made ‘charr charr’ noise on stepping, whatever, leaves are
leaves, just rubbish in the garden.
What is there to invest emotions in those
dry, crispy and rotting leaves?

‘I am sorry that I haven’t been
clicking your photos for cleaning my garden for last 20 years’, said Aunty as soon as she returned from her walk.

‘I want to post it on Twitter’.

Manthru was certainly unaware of all the ranting his
Memsaab has been doing but gave a smile and pretend as though he understood
every bit of it, after all it was about clicking his photo.

Manthru replied, ‘Memsaab, twitter mane woh
chidiya toh nahi?’

Aunty was stunned, ‘Yes Manthru, Twitter has a
symbol of bird. How do you know?’

Manthru replied, ‘I don’t know much but young
boys of our society who gather for evening chats were talking about this’. He
then continued, ‘Memsaab, they were saying something like usne aisa tweet
kiya, uska tweet padha kya?’

‘Memsaab, yeh tweet kya hota hain?’, innocently
questioned Manthru.

Gita Aunty now was looking for an answer and an
easy way to explain him about Twitter.

Finally assured enough about having found an
answer she started, ‘Manthru, woh kya hain na, like in old days Raja-Maharaja
communicated using birds but in this era, no more Raja-Maharaja’s and no more
pigeons used but digital bird is used and this service is Twitter’.

Manthru is listening to his Memsaab with keen
interest.

She then continues, ‘Are you keen on learning
to use Twitter, Manthru?

Unsure if he is stunned or happy
or in denial, he says, ‘Haan Memsaab!’

‘Acha Manthru, sharp at 2 p.m everyday. I will
fetch my laptop and we will start the class in our garden, it is really nice
here.’

A fast learner and so intrigued about changing
world, Manthru is the new ‘Twitter Man’ in the society. His Twitter handle is @TheGardener….Gita
Aunty is happy that she could educate someone and of all her gardener, whose
nails had mud stuck in it but now would run on the keyboard. She was a role model for rest of the employers, her gardener knew to use Twitter!

Gita Aunty went for her evening walks, never
missed it. One such evening sipping her
tea from the finest bone china, she cracked a light joke with Manthru. ‘Arey, so much of swach abhiyan going around,
we can supply them with some dry leaves from our garden.’ Diverting the topic
she asked him, ‘Arey kya hua tumhare Twitter account ka? Did you tweet?’

Something popped in his brain, he
chuckled. Ever since that day, he became overly active, never seen resting nor
with his beedi. He started practising his Twitter lessons on Gita Aunty’s
laptop every afternoon, Gita was proud of her and him as well.

Roughly after a week, just round the corner
Gita Aunty saw a throng of men, photographers sneaking here and there, brooms
after a hard work of cleaning, hillocks of leaves with some polybags and
general litter. Men and Women with Rin white clothes and masks covering their nose.

Then she saw Shambhu's popping head trying to catch a glimpse of the action, he was Mrs Dev's gardener.

With her hand raised high, she called him. He
quickly ran towards her and greeted, ‘Namaste Memsaab.’

Gita Aunty said, ‘What is happening and what
are you doing there?’

Shambhu said, ‘Memsaab, all this good is
happening because of you, we are earning something extra.’

Perplexed, Gita Aunty asked, ‘What? What have I
done?’

Shambhu's grin almost touched his ears now and almost blushing he said, ‘
Memsaab, Manthru taught us to use Twitter, most of the gardeners now know to
use it. We sell all those dried leaves to groups who are interested in buying
it. Today this group bought all the dried leaves from your garden!'

Shambhu eyes were beaming with pride, just like a diamond
merchant's shining eyes while exhibiting his finest collections, he questioned, ‘Memsaab, can you
not recognize those leaves from your garden…see those mango tree leaves, Ashoka
leaves and also those dried bouganvillea flowers?’